Ryland Aldrich, the festival editor, wrote for twitchfilm.com that at that film, the other galas, and the midnight lineup yesterday — and today we turn our attention to the documentary and narrative competitions. The documentary competition specifically has become a real focus for Tribeca in recent years. Here are a few films in each of those sections that caught our eye. Read more about the festival here: http://bit.ly/14tF6OT

World Documentary CompetitionMICHAEL H. PROFESSION: DIRECTOR
Prolific behind-the-scenes documentarian Yves Montmayeur takes a look at the man, the myth, the legend, and the twitter account of director Michael Haneke.

TEENAGE
Based on a book by Jon Savage and narrated by Jena Malone, Ben Whishaw, Julia Hummer and Jessie Usher, director Matt Wolf’s documentary examines the very notion of an age existing between childhood and life as an adult.

POWERLESSFahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar’s documentary looks at modern day Robin Hoods who put themselves at great risk by robbing electricity from paying customers to provide it to those too poor for power.

OXYANA
Sean Dunne’s feature directorial debut is this look at the OxyContin abuse epidemic gripping the small town of Oceana, West Virginia. The film is scored by indie folk band Deer Tick.

THE ROCKET
This rural Laos-set adventure from Aussie director Kim Mordaunt looks to be all kinds of fun.

BEFORE SNOWFALL
There may not be a lot of competition, but it is completely fair to call Hisham Zaman‘s border crossing adventure the most interesting sounding Kurdish language Norwegian-German co-production this year.

THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN
My quick pitch for Felix Van Groeningen’s follow-up to Cannes ’09 title The Misfortunates is a Flemish Blue Valentine involving a couple who are obsessed with American country/western living.

The film was directed by Tom Berninger, brother to the band’s frontman Matt, and follows the Brooklyn outfit on their globe-trotting tour behind 2010′s High Violet.

“When my brother asked me along on tour as a roadie, I thought I might as well bring a camera to film the experience,” Tom explains in the film’s press release. “What started as a pretty modest tour documentary has, over the last two and a half years, grown into something much more personal, and hopefully more entertaining.”

The film’s premiere on Wednesday night will be followed by a special performance by the band. For more information, including ticketing, consult the festival’s official site.

Early in his career, Alfred Hitchcock began making small appearances in his own films. The cameos sometimes lasted just a few brief seconds, and sometimes a little while longer. Either way, they became a signature of Hitchcock’s filmmaking, and fans made a sport of seeing whether they could spot the elusive director. From 1927 to 1976, Hitchcock made 37 appearances in total, and they’re all nicely catalogued by Hitchcock.TVand the clip above. Read more about Hitchcock here: http://bit.ly/XKNMNM

In this brilliantly wise and articulate short excerpt from an archival interview, the great Alfred Hitchcock shares his definition of happiness — a definition that makes my own heart sing, and harks back to this morning’s meditation on kindness and the lack thereof. Read more here: http://bit.ly/157pAas

A clear horizon — nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive… I can’t bear quarreling, I can’t bear feelings between people — I think hatred is wasted energy, and it’s all non-productive. I’m very sensitive — a sharp word, said by a person, say, who has a temper, if they’re close to me, hurts me for days. I know we’re only human, we do go in for these various emotions, call them negative emotions, but when all these are removed and you can look forward and the road is clear ahead, and now you’re going to create something — I think that’s as happy as I’ll ever want to be.”

Beautifully said, with a blend of personal vulnerability and firm conviction worthy of profound respect.

Nearly six years after the cancellation of the whip-smart television show about a teenage private eye in a California town deeply divided by class (and murder!), the Kickstarter for the Veronica Marsmovie ends later today, after breaking fundraising records and taking in over $5 million on the crowdfunding platform. The tremendous success of the Kickstarter, launched a month ago by creator Rob Thomas and actress Kristen Bell, has even inspired talk that this could change the way films get made — particularly for properties with devoted followings willing to put their money where their fandom is.

So what are the implications of Kickstarter resurrection and fan-funded film? What could this mean for other beloved (but cancelled) series like Freaks and Geeks or Chuck? And what happened to Veronica and her father after the cliffhanger at the end of Season 3? Wired talked to Thomas to find out or read more the interview here: http://bit.ly/ZprzQt

Wired: Do you think the success of your Kickstarter could be the start of a new business model for film? How do you see it working for other people who aspire to make movies?

Rob Thomas: I think it will be an important pioneer for a certain type of film. I’m not convinced that this will revolutionize how most movies get made, but I think there’s an opportunity now for projects that are similar to ours – that have some bit of public support behind it before they launch on Kickstarter… For something like Veronica Mars, where there’s a bit of a cult following and people are really emotionally invested in it, I do think this is a new avenue. There is no other way that this movie was going to get made.

Warner Bros owns the title Veronica Mars. I don’t… The lowest-priced movie Warner Bros tends to makes is a $30 million, and it goes up from there. They make Lord of the Rings. They don’t make theVeronica Mars movie, typically. So trying to convince Warner Bros to make a $30 million Veronica Marsmovie just wasn’t going to happen, for understandable reasons. When I took this project in, I didn’t take it in through their feature division. I’m making the movie with Warner Bros Digital; they do a lot of the smaller budget [projects]. I think we’re only going to be their second movie with a theatrical release; they typically do things straight to digital and digital download.

With this model, it’s almost a marketing device, a way to judge if there was enough interest in a movie this size. For a Friday Night Lights movie or a Freaks and Geek movie or a Chuck movie, I think it could be a possibility. I think this opens up a door. What I’m interested in as a writer is [if] a writer optioned a book and brought on an actor with some name value – if that combination could raise the money on Kickstarter to make a movie.

Wired: What would you think about Kickstarting a totally new movie project from scratch that didn’t have that preexisting recognition?

Rob Thomas: It would be so gutsy to do that. I started as a novelist, and I have novels. So I wonder, what if I took one of my books and maybe attached – not Kristen Bell … but an actor with that sort of renown and said, “We’re going to try and make this [movie] for $1.5 million dollars.” That would be such an interesting experiment. And I may try it. No one learns as much as when they do anything the first time, and I feel like I’ve learned so much that I have this knowledge that very few people in the world do about running a really big Kickstarter project. And if I never do it again, it’s wasted knowledge. But it’s also a lot of work. Having gotten TV shows on the air, that’s so much less work that trying to get theVeronica Mars movie made.

Wired: How does the financial model of the movie work, and how is the money being allocated?

Rob Thomas: It’s all going to the budget of the movie. We get to make a bigger movie the more money we make … The back end of the movie is divvied up like any other movie that gets made. The stars of the show will get a piece of the back end; the producer will get a piece of the back end. Clearly Warner Bros will own a big part of it. And I hope Warner Bros does well on it, because if not, they won’t make any more of these. I think there’s a scenario where everybody wins: where Kristen and I get to make the movie we’ve been hoping to make; where fans get to see the movie; and where Warner Bros makes money on it as well.

Wired: So in terms of the film’s plot, what’s happened to Veronica since the last time that we saw her at the end of Season 3?

Rob Thomas: Not only that was the last time she worked a case, but she left Neptune shortly there after. She ruins her father’s career as an officer of the law, and he gets indicted.

Wired: No!

Rob Thomas: Yes. Veronica transfers to Stanford, graduates, and goes to Columbia Law School. And as we pick up the movie, it’s sort of like Tom Cruise at the beginning of The Firm. She’s finished law school, is waiting to take the bar, and interviewing with law firms. But then something happens in Neptune that pulls her back, and makes her metaphorically pick up her magnifying glass again.

Wired: A lot of Veronica’s appeal came from this sense that she was an underdog, but presumably in the adult world she’s getting recognition for her talents in ways that she didn’t from her cliquey high school classmates. Has her character outgrown that underdog status, or is that something you wanted to continue in the film?

Rob Thomas: It was certainly what I was working towards at the end of season 3. If we’d had a season 4, I wanted to get Veronica back into an underdog state. I think we liked Veronica best as a pariah of sorts.

Wired: How do you think fans’ attitudes and expectations about the show have changed since the show ended? Do they’re looking for nostalgia or growth in Veronica and the rest of the cast?

Rob Thomas: I think they’re looking for both. I know there’s something just automatically hook-y about a 17-year-old girl who’s a private eye. There’s less of a hook when it’s a 27-year-old woman. It’s a little more normal, a little more inside-the-box. … You have to make it work as a PI movie. And I understand the cons of nostalgia, but there are some Veronica Mars pleasure zones that I want to hit. If there were a [James] Bond movie and there wasn’t a martini scene – there are just certain things where I’d be cheating the audience if I didn’t include them. But I want it to work as a standalone movie as well for people who have never seen Veronica Mars, and just heard buzz about it and want to check it out finally when it’s a movie. I had never watched Firefly, but I’d heard the buzz so I went and saw the movie. I hope there are plenty of people who will give the Veronica Mars movie that chance.

Wired: One final question for you from Twitter: Any chance that the Party Down crew could cater the Neptune High 10-year reunion?

Rob Thomas: [laughs] There’s no chance. What’s funny is most of the members of the Party Downcrew have already played people on Veronica Mars. Adam Scott was a creepy teacher; Ken Marino is going to be in the movie as Vinnie Van Lowe. Someone like Martin Starr hasn’t been in Veronica Mars, so you might see him – but he won’t be catering it.

The Academy Award winning director talks about his nod to heist films and classic noir

Director Danny Boyle used electronic and retro jazz sounds in the new art-heist film “Trance.” (Fox Searchlight)

In the films of English director Danny Boyle, music frequently emerges as an important (if unseen) character. The drug-addict drama Trainspotting was fueled by a jam-packed, manic soundtrack of songs by Iggy Pop, Brian Eno and the electronic duo Underworld. He teamed up with Indian composer A.R. Rahman for 127 Hours and the highly successful Slumdog Millionaire, for which Boyle won a Best Director Oscar.

His new movie Trance, starring James McAvoy and Rosario Dawson, pays homage to two beloved genres: the high-tech heist movie and shadowy film noir.

Boyle enlisted a frequent collaborator, Rick Smith of Underworld, to craft dance beats for action sequences, while using pre-existing jazz and French chanson for sequences involving hypnosis and dreams.

Known for using pre-existing songs, Boyle doesn’t use a music supervisor and selects tracks himself. “It’s one of the deepest pleasures for me. It helps shape the film in so many ways, [beyond] just the music. It informs the film completely for me,” he told Soundcheck‘s John Schaefer. “I’m very proud to be able to associate myself with these artists via film.”

He talked with John Schaefer about choosing music for Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Read more the conversation here: http://wny.cc/ZpoOi0

JS: On using “Deep Blue Day” from Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois’ album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, for the notorious Trainspotting scene involving “the worst toilet in Scotland”:

DB: That album is, to me, one of the greatest atmospheric albums ever. It is just an extraordinary piece of work. I’ve used it multiple times. I used it in a TV series before I moved into films. And I used it so many times, in so many different ways, that eventually Brian Eno wrote to me and said, “I’ve done other things, you know.”

JS: Tell us about a song that you thought would be perfect for a scene, but couldn’t get permission to use.

DB: We tried to get Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” for 28 Days Later. There’s an amazing sequence where [Cillian Murphy’s character, Jim] walks home. London is deserted, apparently apart from this threat, and he finds his way back to his old home where his parents lived. And he finds them in bed, passed away. They passed away peacefully and left a message for him. It’s very moving within this apocalyptic horror.

And her amazing song was [initially] on the soundtrack. And we approached her about it, and she said she didn’t want it to be associated with anything else because she wanted to do something else with it in the near future. So she declined, and I was really sad. [Theatrically] Really sad.

But her decision was a good one – and good things come out of it. And we used a hymn instead which actually had an even greater significance instead, especially for a British audience. You’re trying to suggest the past of the city, and hymns sonically do that. Something that we’re all familiar with through schooling, and so we used “Abide With Me.”

JS: Will there be a third film in the 28 Days Later zombie franchise?

DB: I wish we’d had shares in The Walking Dead, the TV show! There had been a whole zombie movement, and then I think we helped refresh it with 28 Days Later. […] I was very keen for it not to be known as a zombie movie. I had this idea that the threat is much more rage-filled. But it’s become absorbed in the zombie landscape and is referred to constantly as a zombie movie. I have to accept that. [laughs] I’m lucky to be there. There is an idea for a third part, cause we did a 28 Weeks Later, and so the 28 Months Later or whatever it would be called — the third one — there is a plan for that. How realistic it is given the success of something like Walking Dead, I have no idea. Who knows? Fingers crossed.

The Hangover franchise has all the rigidity of a slasher movie series—you know exactly what’s going to happen each time you go in. The “wolf pack” will be brought together via some kind of narrative contrivance. Then, something will go awry, and the group of friends will be sent to some semi-exotic vacation locale and go on a series of wacky misadventures until everything is set right again. Oh, and there will be some kind of notorious celebrity cameo, and a zoo animal will show up at some point.

It’s all pretty rote, but Galifianakis and Jeong get some funny moments. More than anything else, simply enjoy that this trailer signifies the final Hangover film. At least until it makes a ton of money and another one is released, then another one.

Earlier today director Baz Luhrmann and executive producer Jay-Z released the soundtrack to The Great Gatsby and, on paper at least, it seems like a winner. Not only does it feature the likes of Florence and The Machine, The xx, Sia and Gotye, it’s got new material from Lana Del Rey and a host of covers: Beyonce andAndre 3000 doing Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back In Black’, Brian Ferry doing ‘Crazy in Love’ and Jack White’s take on U2’s ‘Love Is Blindness’ (which first appeared on a 2011 tribute album). But for The Great Gatsby to really cut through, it has to be more than just a compilation. Here are 10 soundtracks that not only sound good as a party playlist, but also conjure pivotal moments in their respective films. Listen to complete soundtracks here: http://bit.ly/Xurm0M

Trainspotting (1996)

Regarded as one of the best British films of the past 20 years Trainspotting, director Danny Boyle, used an A-list cast of musical talent to give the film that extra bit of punch (like it actually needed more!). Featuring tracks from David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Underworld, the CD release of the soundtrack was so successful they put out another disk – and it was just as good.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

We all know Quentin Tarantino is the king of pop culture references, edgy dialogue and gore, but his impossibly good taste in music often gets overlooked. Featuring songs from Al Green (‘Let’s Stay Together’), Kool and the Gang (‘Jungle Boogie’) and Dusty Springfield (‘Son Of A Preacher Man’), not to mention Urge Overkill’s inspired cover of Neil Diamond’s ‘Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon’, _Pulp Fiction_’s soundtrack is as effortlessly cool as the film itself.

Soundtrack highlight: John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing to Chuck Berry’s ‘You Never Can Tell’.

The Social Network (2010)

Who thought Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails would actually win an Oscar? But he deserves it for this brooding and ambient work – co-composed with Atticus Ross – that complemented the uneasy pace and tone of the film. The real genius of their score (and the script by Aaron Sorkin) is that it elevated a boring story about a bunch of geeks starting a website into a gripping film.

Soundtrack highlight: If you can pick a highlight out of a minimalist piano score, you’re doing one better than us.

Drive (2011)

The soundtrack to 2011’s Drive heavily featured Cliff Martinez – former guitarist for the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart – who has now turned his attention to composing scores. His pulsating electro-pop aesthetic translated perfectly to the stretches of the film where heartthrob Ryan Gosling was on the road, escalating in intensity where the scene needed it to. The soundtrack also features a few great songs from the likes of Kavinsky, Chromatics and Desire, particularly ‘Under Your Spell’.

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Between Radiohead’s ‘Exit Music’, Butthole Surfers’ ‘Whatever (I Had a Dream)’ and Everclear’s ‘Local God’ nothing said “mid-’90s” quite like this soundtrack. Plus who would’ve thought that Garbage’s ‘#1 Crush’ could ever appear in a story written by Shakespeare? Or ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans, which became a hit single thanks to the film.

Soundtrack highlight: For the romantics: Des’ree’s ‘I’m Kissing You’ in the “fishtank scene”.

Judgement Night (1993)

The beginning of rap-rock for (better or worse), with every song on the soundtrack coupling a rock act with a hip-hop artist. There was the improbable Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul collaboration ‘Fallin’, Faith No Moreteaming up with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. for ‘Another Body Murdered’, Helmet and House of Pain doing ‘Just Another Victim’ (yes, they had songs other than ‘Jump Around’). The film itself is pretty unmemorable – it starred Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr and Denis Leary as a bunch of mates who end up in the wrong part of town – but the soundtrack will stand the test of time.

Almost Famous (2000)

Like Tarantino, Cameron Crowe is another director that knows just when to drop the perfect song at the perfect time in one of his films (see: the “boombox scene” in Say Anything, or Tom Cruise belting out ‘Free Falling’ in Jerry Maguire). Almost Famous, which tells the (somewhat embellished) story of his early years as a Rolling Stone contributor, is like a nostalgia trip back into Crowe’s past – from The Beach Boys to Simon & Garfunkel, Yes to The Who. Even the songs by the film’s fictitious band Stillwater sound like they were writing four decades ago.

Singles (1992)

Another Cameron Crowe special. A movie about six people looking for love in Seattle, Singles helped spread the city’s nascent grunge scene to a national audience before it exploded into the mainstream via Nirvana. The film features some of the scene’s biggest names (Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney and Soundgarden), a Chris Cornell solo track recorded on a four-track in his cupboard and some of Paul Westerberg’s better post-Replacements output (‘Waiting For Somebody’, ‘Dyslexic Heart’). Though uncredited, there’s a snippet of Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Three Days’ when Bridget Fonda opens a fridge.

Soundtrack highlight: The first airing of Soundgarden’s Spoonman two years before its release.

Friday (1995)

Starring Chris Tucker and Ice Cube, stoner comedy Friday was released just as the West Coast hip-hop movement was hitting its peak. As a result the film is soundtracked by California’s finest, with contributions from Cypress Hill, Dr Dre, Mack 10 and Cube himself, providing its title track. Amid all the rap was the inclusion of some smoother jams from the likes of Rick James and Bootsy Collins.

Forrest Gump (1994)

An epic film with a suitably epic soundtrack. Thirty-two tracks with not one original song (bar the opening suite) among them, Forrest Gump’s score featured all the ‘60 to ‘70s big guns: Aretha Franklin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beach Boys, Elvis. Much like the film itself, the list just goes on, and on, and on.

The element of surprise packs a powerful punch in the world of cinema, especially when a lead character is killed off. So what are the five best unexpected on-screen deaths?

Compiled by Tom Grater, a London-based film writer and founder of entertainment website Tom’s Cinema. You can also follow him on Twitter @tomsmovies. If you’ve got an idea for a future Clip joint, drop an email to adam.boult@guardian.co.uk.

In a world where any successful trope of film is regurgitated to death, directors have an increasingly difficult job if they want to catch us off our guard and deliver a genuine surprise. An unexpected death, particularly of a central character, is a plot twist that film-makers often fall back on when they want to shake their audience up. Below are five of the best examples.

Obvious spoiler warning! If you’re squeamish of blood you might want to avoid the clips below. There’s also a fair bit of swearing.

Quentin Tarantino’s films are littered with gleefully unexpected moments of impulsive, or accidental, homicide. There’s the “Goodbye Miss Laura” scene in Django Unchained, and the one from Jackie Brown where Robert De Niro finally loses his temper with Bridget Fonda. Topping them all is this completely unforeseeable calamity in Pulp Fiction.

It’s a tough choice between this particular scene from Infernal Affairs and its remake The Departed, but while a lot of the adaptation is shot for shot, Scorsese’s film adds just a touch of extra drama to this climactic moment.

While Brad Pitt‘s appearance on this list was by no means mandatory, he could have easily been here for Meet Joe Black, which offers a clever take on the tried and tested “unexpectedly hit by a bus/car” motif. However, this shocking moment from the Coen brothers‘ irreverent comedy Burn After Reading makes its way onto this canon via Pitt’s delightfully impish grin, etched permanently onto his face following his untimely demise.

Exceptional Aussie crime drama Animal Kingdom has an ending as surprising and satisfying as they come. Teenage protagonist Joshua has spent the majority of the film in fear of his villainous uncles, in particular the monstrous Pope (played by the superb Ben Mendelsohn), but in one brief moment he exacts an unexpected revenge. The clip includes quite a lot of build-up, making the finale all the more potent.